The invention relates to the field of optical encoders, and more particularly to an angular collimated reflective optical encoder.
There are a number of types of optical encoders available on the market today. Optical encoders are particularly useful for scanning information or movements and recording or transmitting such information. For instance, optical encoders have been used extensively on automation lines or in conjunction with robots to determine movement or actions in the assembly process. Each of the optical encoders on the market generally includes a source, a reflective code wheel and a receiver. A problem with these designs concerns the fact that the light beam in certain instances is out of phase or dispersed as it passes from source to reflective code wheel to receiver. This leads to lower overall signal and signal contrast that is detectable by receiver and may provide poor results or operation depending upon how the optical encoder has been used. Certain applications require improved resolution in order to take advantage of the optical encoder devices. Furthermore, it is desirable to have a design in which all components are present on the same platform so that a common surface mount may be employed. These and other problems of the art have been obviated by the present invention.
The invention provides an angular collimated reflective optical encoder. The angular collimated reflective optical encoder comprises a source for providing a light beam, a collimator adjacent to the source for collimating the light beam at a defined angle, a reflective surface adjacent to the collimator for reflecting the light beam collimated by the collimator, and a receiver for receiving the reflected and collimated light beam.